Text Size

-

+

reset

One reporter asked 66-year-old Barber on the conference call how his health was, in an apparent reference to the two bullet wounds he suffered in the shooting. Barber said his “health is great,” and that it has “gotten better by the minute, by the day.”

“I would stress that,” he added, noting that his health was a big part of his decision-making process.

Barber also said he is currently using a leg brace and that he has much more mobility and energy than in the past. “I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t think I could.”

Following Barber’s announcement, National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Daniel Scarpinato said in a statement, “No one wanted this special election to happen, but it comes at a time when Arizona and our country are at a critical crossroads. The issues and challenges are too great to deny voters a full debate on which candidate is best to secure our border, create jobs and turn our economy around.”

Jesse Kelly, Giffords’s Republican opponent from 2010, is also running in the special election. As The Associated Press reports, other Republicans in the race are Dave Sitton, state Sen. Frank Antenori, former Air Force pilot Martha McCally and John Lervold, a civilian instructor at the Army’s Fort Huachuca.

State Rep. Matt Heinz is the only other Democrat who has announced a run for Giffords’s old seat — he has said he will only run for a full term in November if Barber jumps into the special election, the AP said. On Thursday’s conference call, Barber said he had not spoken to Heinz.

A serious political reporter would not only get Colonel Martha McSally's name right, but also note her impressive military record: First female combat pilot (Iraq and Afghanistan), first female Air Force combat squadron commander, masters in government from Harvard, and the woman who refused to wear covering garments off-base in Saudi Arabia and got the military to revoke those orders.

She has a Wikipedia entry

Amazing that Politico devotes a long article to a non-entity apparatchik and does no research on the Republican who's going to win.